-: Hello, and welcome to the video lecture
on Sustainability, Mission and Vision.
Here's a brief agenda of what we're gonna do.
We're gonna talk about a model that I like a lot,
the Hedgehog Model of Success.
We're gonna talk about community entrepreneurship,
sustainability, and get you ready to think about
the mission and vision statements
for your business idea or organization idea
and how you can incorporate sustainability into it.
One model I like a lot,
and this isn't specific to sustainability,
is the Hedgehog Model of Success.
You can see a link here.
It was developed by a business scholar named Jim Collins,
who talks about a successful business
will be at the intersection of these three things.
First, passion.
What do you love?
What is true to your values?
What when you do it feels like play instead of work?
Next, what are you good or even great at?
What are you one of the best in the world at?
What's something that you can do extremely well?
And then third, what will drive an economic engine?
How can you put the first two things together
in a way that will create value
so that someone will pay you for it?
And if you can find an idea
that at the intersection of those three things
by this model, that will lead to success.
And since this major
and this department and this class
is much more about just business success,
there's also the part of what the world needs
that I'm hoping that all of you will develop
or work for, or devote your careers
to things that not only drive an economic engine for you
and give you a fulfilling life,
but which makes the world a better place,
which addresses needs,
which helps your community.
And if you find all those things,
it's not only success, but you find purpose.
This is a quick overview of a diagram
about what this class is all about,
that you'll be developing a marketing plan,
which will create value
and also help to fulfill your mission.
I like this idea of what makes a business
or what makes an enterprise a community enterprise.
And our former Chair, Dr. Jane Kolodinsky,
I like this quotation of hers,
that it's one that's woven in
that is making their communities better.
It's not just plopping down
and extracting value
and leaving the place a worse one.
You'll see also, here's a link to a blog post
that I wrote some years ago,
which gives my thoughts on it,
and feel free to read that if you care to.
I imagine that you've seen these,
these are the UN Sustainability Goals
and a lot of the work that we do in this,
the department uses this as a framework.
So, I invite you throughout this class
to think about how can a business contribute to these?
And where is there opportunity?
Where is there a need for a business
or an organization that
you can start, that you can work for,
that gives your life purpose and meaning,
but also creates an opportunity
for you to earn a livelihood
and to contribute to these goals
and work toward a more sustainable world?
So, there's a well-known three-legged stool model,
or it's also known as the triple bottom line
where we wanna think about not only economic,
but also social
and environmental contributions,
sometimes called people, planet, and profit.
So, I want you to think about
what makes something sustainable?
Thinking about these three dimensions of sustainability.
Starting with environmental,
this is very often the one that most people think about,
maybe most work has been done.
In some ways it might be the easiest one
to achieve in certain ways
because it tends to be a little bit more measurable
and straight forward.
But thinking about what can a business do
to be more environmentally sustainable?
And what are important indicators?
What would you look for?
How would you measure it?
What would be high or low, present or absence?
How would you know it when you see it?
Next is social.
This might be the hardest one,
and there's a lot of things that might fit into this bucket
of the welfare of your employees
diversity, service, whether you do
make charitable donations,
but how can you make the society around you better?
One of which that I like to think about a lot
is can the folks who work
in a business,
those who may maybe make the food
in the back of the house
or serve food in the front of the house
in the case of a restaurant,
can they afford to shop there or eat there
or buy that product?
And are both the employees and the managers
and everybody woven into the community?
Last, what is economic sustainability?
Certainly you want to work for
or start an organization that pays you a fair wage
or pays you a fair salary where you have
some sort of economic
prosperity and security.
But beyond that, how can you create wealth
that also helps those around you?
How can you help to create
a shared and enduring prosperity in your community?
Some things that you can think about
is do you pay a fair wage to your employees?
Do you support your other local businesses?
And there may be other things
that I invite you to think about.
Finally, what are trade-offs?
What are ways in which one dimension,
one measure, something that you strive for,
one goal that if you achieve it
might make it harder or detract from success
in one of the other dimensions or goals?
I like to think of this term.
So, you may of NIMBY,
so you might have heard this term, not in my back yard,
where folks might say, "I don't want this.
This is bad."
You know, things that sort of cause like a blight
or pollution or such.
And a lot of times neighborhoods
will sort of rise up and resist these,
but I want you to think of your business as a YIMBY,
a yes in my backyard.
What can you do that if word gets around
that your business is going to locate in a certain place
that folks say,
they don't say, "Not in back yard,"
but they say, "Yes, in my back yard.
I invite you, I want you to move here."
Certain ways that you can codify
these sort of sustainability and community goals
is through the mission and the vision of your organization.
So, a mission statement
sort of lays out your objectives.
Why do you exist?
Helps to guide what do you do
and what do you not do?
That there's very many things that may be important,
may be valuable,
but what fits into your organization and what not?
It tends to be clear and it should be clear and succinct,
and it should say, "What do you do and for whom?"
So, here is a mission
of my home department, CDAE.
And you can see here that it says
what do we do and who do we do it for?
A vision statement, in contrast,
lays out what will the world look like?
What do we aspire to?
If we are successful,
what will that look like?
And two of my favorite ones
are these two men that you may know.
Martin Luther King said, "I have a dream,"
and John Lennon said, "Imagine."
And while the speech and the song
may not be clear vision statements
that may not have been their intent,
I think they do a good job of laying out
what is the world that we hope for?
So, here's just a graphic on that,
sort of the contrast
between a mission and a vision statement.
Thank you.